Delivering Transformative Impacts on the Ground
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Ministry of Environment and Tourism Delivering transformative impacts on the ground Contribution of projects mobilized through the Ministry of Environment and Tourism from 2014-2019 1 2 MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER 4 ABOUT THIS REPORT 5 1. INTRODUCTION 6 2. LEVERAGING MAJOR ENVIRONMENT-RELATED FINANCING WINDOWS 7 3. OVERVIEW OF FUNDS MOBILISED 9 4. DELIVERING TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACTS 10 4.1 CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE UTILIZATION OF WILDLIFE 11 Intensifying the fight against poaching and wildlife crime 11 Supporting communities to mitigate human wildlife conflict 13 Enhancing infrastructure in national parks 13 Improving management effectiveness of national parks 13 4.2 CLIMATE RESILIENT AGRICULTURE 13 Establishment of a Centre of Excellence for climate resilient agriculture 13 Testing conservation agriculture technologies 14 Strengthening the adaptive capacity of communal farmers to climate change 14 Insuring communal farmers against drought in northeastern Namibia 14 Piloting hydroponic fodder production 15 Micro-Drip Irrigation (MDI) Gardens for vegetable production with climate smart technologies specifically for water-saving purposes 15 Use of Earth Dams and Traditional Wells 17 4.3 ENHANCING WATER SECURITY DURING THE TIME OF DROUGHT 17 Desalination Plants in the //Kharas Region 17 Taking urgent action to mitigate the drought in Ohangwena Region 18 Conservancies in Kunene Region 20 Uukwaluudhi Conservancy in Omusati Region 21 4.4 USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY TO POWER INFRASTRUCTURE IN COMMUNAL CONSERVANCIES 22 4.5 BUILDING THE CAPACITY OF NAMIBIANS 22 5. MOVING FORWARD 23 ANNEX I: NATIONAL TARGETS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RIO CONVENTIONS 24 Contents ANNEX II: TABLE OF DONOR-FUNDED PROJECTS MOBILIZED THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTMENT FUND OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS 27 3 In spite of Namibia’s classification as a middle income Another major impetus has been investment into country, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and climate-friendly infrastructure, particularly in protected the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia have areas, communal conservancies and community forests. been hugely successful in mobilizing resources through Solar-powered boreholes and the use of desalination both multilateral financing mechanisms and bilateral technologies have been found to save communities money cooperation. and to supply water to communities, livestock and wildlife in this period of severe drought. These have also been a A total of 12 projects have been mobilized through the central component of efforts to mitigate conflict between Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility and humans and wildlife and will leave a lasting legacy for the Adaptation Fund over the past 5 years with an overall years to come. value of N$1.21 billion at the 2019 exchange rate. These projects cover the areas of biodiversity conservation, Last but by no means least, it is pleasing to note that all climate change adaptation and mitigation and combating of these projects have been evaluated and audited and land degradation. have been found to be implemented satisfactorily or better. What’s more is that the projects have served to enhance the In terms of bilateral cooperation, five projects are under capacity of Namibians charged with their implementation implementation or have been implemented with support – particularly in the fields of project management, from the German Government worth N$665.6 million at administration and finance, communications, monitoring the 2019 exchange rate. These projects are implemented in and evaluation among others. Pohamba Shifeta, MP partnership with GIZ and the German Development Bank Minister of Environment and Tourism (KfW). I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the donor agencies and countries that have provided These projects have been designed mainly to pilot and support to Namibia’s efforts to implement the various demonstrate new innovations and technologies as Namibia multilateral environmental agreements and I assure you Message increases its efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, of Namibia’s commitment in tackling these pressing global halt biodiversity loss and combat land degradation and environmental challenges. from the desertification. Particularly prominent have been new approaches to agriculture such as hydroponics, community gardens based on conservation agriculture and drip Minister irrigation, fodder production as well as water harvesting. 4 This report outlines the main projects that have been the innovations and technologies demonstrated in these About this mobilized from multilateral and bilateral sources through projects are absorbed and upscaled by Government and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the other stakeholders. Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia over the Report period 2014-2019. More importantly the report details the significant impacts these projects have had in terms of contributing to rural development and livelihood improvement throughout Teofilus Nghitila Namibia during a time when the country has been seriously Executive Director affected by consecutive and severe drought events. This is the future we can expect as the devastating impacts of climate change manifests itself in this part of the world. Faced with this challenge, we firstly need to pilot and demonstrate new innovations and technologies that make our communities more resilient to climate change and other pressing environment-related problems such as water insecurity, human wildlife conflict and poaching. This report documents these innovations and technologies and their impacts. As the National Designated Authority and focal Ministry to various multilateral funding mechanisms, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism will continue to coordinate the development and submission of project proposals to access funding from various multilateral and bilateral windows. It will furthermore continue to ensure that these projects have a positive impact on both the current and future generations of Namibians and do its utmost to ensure that 5 1 2 3 4 Environmental issues are highly cross-cutting and Each of the multilateral environmental agreements contain Introduction have emerged as one of the critical challenges facing provisions related to financial resources, technology mankind today. Environmental issues are at the center of transfer, and capacity development in line with principle the Sustainable Development Goals and a wide variety 7 of the Rio Declaration on common but differentiated of multilateral environmental agreements have been responsibilities for environmental degradation. Namibia has established to focus international efforts on tackling these sought to capitalize on these provisions and the dedicated issues. financial mechanisms that have been established to tackle the planet’s most pressing environmental problems. These multilateral environmental agreements include amongst others: This is fully in line with the actions and strategies under the Harambee Prosperity Plan, including the mobilisation i. United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity of support from the international community for the war ii. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification against poverty and acquiring funding to finance Namibia’s iii. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate climate change and renewable energy mix efforts. Change iv. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Namibia’s successes in mobilizing resources are presented Species in this publication as are some of the main impacts from v. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic the implementation of these projects. Pollutants vi. Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal vii. Minamata Convention on Mercury Namibia has ratified each of these agreements and is commonly recognized as one of the most active developing countries in their implementation. It has designed specific action plans and strategies for their national level implementation and has linked their implementation to the reduction of poverty, ensuring food security and achieving 1 Examples of national level targets developed to sustained economic growth and sustainable development. implement each of the Rio Conventions are presented in Annex I. 6 Leveraging major environment- related financing windows Overview of projects mobilized and implemented in As the National Designated Authority and focal Ministry to Namibia through the Global Environment Facility the majority of multilateral environment-related financing (Source: https://www.thegef.org/country/namibia). windows, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism has played a major role in coordinating the development and submission of project proposals to access funding from these multilateral windows. The Environmental Investment Fund also became one of the first accredited entities to the Green Climate Fund in 2016 and is playing a major role in mobilizing funding through this window. 7 The key dedicated multilateral financial mechanisms was recognized as an accredited entity to the GCF in and transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) such as the include: 2016 and is therefore eligible to access funding under this Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA, which are also important important window. vehicles for attracting funding. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF), which was established in 1992 and assists developing countries Other smaller financing mechanisms include the in protecting the global environment